Neuqua Valley's Barrows leaving winning tradition behind

Barb Barrows may pause for reflection, but it's inevitable, being athletic herself, that she won't slow down.

The retiring Neuqua Valley athletic director obviously remains in the thick of a 2016-17 athletic season not even halfway over. When her contract expires in late June after 33 years in District 204 she'll mull over her options.

"The best advice I've been given is not to do anything for six months to a year," said Barrows, married with two adult sons and two grandchildren.

"I think I want to reclaim myself, maybe play a little golf and travel," she said.

It's likely that in her job as Neuqua's only athletic director to date she has traveled to golf.

Quickly advancing from the usual sluggishness most new high schools experience, the 2000 girls golf team's second-place finish was the first of 37 state trophies Wildcats athletic teams have claimed since the school started varsity competition in 1997-98.

The school has won 10 state championships spanning seven sports, has produced an Olympic gold medalist in swimmer Kevin Cordes and a multiple cross country world champion in Chris Derrick.

A 1978 graduate, track athlete and cheerleader at Plainfield High School - the school destroyed by a tornado in 1990 - Barrows was first hired in the district in 1983 as a physical education instructor at Waubonsie Valley, a year after finishing studies at the University of Wisconsin-Lacrosse.

A physical education major with a concentration in coaching, she did just that first at Plainfield as an assistant softball coach in 1985 and then at Waubonsie as head coach from 1985-1991. Barrows also was the Warriors' girls soccer coach from 1985-87.

While earning a master's at Illinois State she entered the administrative wing, as an assistant athletic director at Waubonsie Valley. From 1989 to 1997, she worked with Dick Kerner and then Mike Rogowski before the Indian Prairie School District branched out to southeast Naperville.

Barrows has since served on Illinois High School Association Advisory Committees for gymnastics and badminton - Neuqua is the two-time defending state champion in the latter - and in general has overseen an athletic success story. She said interviews for her successor will take place in early 2017.

Barrows described herself and Neuqua's athletic staff, her "second family," as being "green" when the school first came online, It's in the black now, no 0-9 football teams or 6-22 boys basketball teams in the foreseeable future.

"To see them (coaches) mature over the years and for all of us to work together to build the great traditions that we've established, it's been a lot of fun," she said.

As for her first family, Barb and Rick Barrows live in Shorewood and also have a place near Louisville, Kentucky, close to where their oldest son, Aaron, lives with his wife, Stephanie, and children Blakely and Baylor. Another son, Ryan, lives in Plainfield.

Next summer they'll have a full-time partner for cycling, golfing and ... she'll fill in the blanks.

"I'll give myself some time and find a new journey," Barb said.

Slammin' Sam

Sam Katsikas is just going to play her game. It's a better game than most.

According to Glenbard East girls golf coach Scott Miller, the senior's last three golf seasons rank among the program's top seven seasons ever.

Between her high school results and those on the Illinois Junior Golf Association circuit, Samantha, or "Sam", Katsikas earned an invite to the first Midwest Girls Golf Invitational. So did Glenbard West's Samantha Moody and York's Jenny Diamond and Christine Millens.

The invite is Saturday and Sunday at Winding Ridge Golf Course in Indianapolis, 157 girls divided into three qualifying rounds with the top 12 from each qualifier advancing to a final round at 2 p.m. Sunday.

"I'm kind of just going to go in and play my game," said Katsikas, who at this point is considering playing either at Arcadia University outside of Philadelphia, the University of Dallas or at Eckerd College in St. Petersburg, Florida, where she has a visit lined up Nov. 7-8.

"I don't have any set goals, but one thing I would like is to make it to the finals, or the top 12," Katsikas said. "If that doesn't happen I'm still going to be happy I was even invited to the tournament and will have the experience under my belt (for) future tournaments."

An only child and a cousin of the ambidextrous former West Suburban Gold boys champion John Katsikas of Addison Trail, Sam learned the game from her father, Tony, who will be accompanying her to Indianapolis along with Sam's mother, Cindy.

Sam Katsikas' game may leave fellow golfers jealous. Her approaches, pitches and her "hot putter" outperform her shots off the tee.

"My strengths are definitely my irons, I would say, keeping it straight," she said. "Even if they don't go too far usually they go pretty straight."

All-conference in the Upstate Eight as well as Glenbard East's record holder at the Ram Invite at Glendale Lakes this season, on Tuesday Katsikas prepared for the Midwest Girls Golf Invitational by playing at Ruffled Feathers Golf Club in Lemont. She said it's similar to Winding Ridge. She feels driven and motivated.

"It's going to be a challenge, but I think (Tuesday) I gained more confidence going into the weekend," she said. "I played pretty well striking the ball yesterday, so I'm pretty confident."

Congrats

We're going old school with the notice that Itasca native Jack Woodman, a two-way football lineman for Cornell College in Mt. Vernon, Iowa, will be inducted into that school's Athletics Hall of Fame on Saturday. A 1966 graduate, Woodman earned first-team all-Midwest Conference honors at offensive guard in 1965 while also leading the Rams with 89 tackles in eight games. The team's most valuable player and Iowa small-college all-star earned a tryout with the Minnesota Vikings.

Patty Wenig Miller, a 1987 Immaculate Conception graduate who earned eight varsity letters and was the Knights' girls track MVP as a senior, was inducted into Augustana's Tribe of Vikings Hall of Fame on Oct. 1. She extended Augustana's existing women's triple jump record by 5 feet by the time she graduated in 1991. Augustana's first women's indoor All-American, Wenig Miller held school records in triple jump, the 400-meter hurdles and two relay events that each stood for at least a decade. She earned three individual College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin individual championships, one relay title and ran on two CCIW championship teams including Augie's first in 1988.

doberhelman@dailyherald.com

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